Favourite flowering house plants
Nick Morgan, RHS Glasshouse specialist, and Phil Clayton, Features Editor of The Garden recommend some reliable flowering house plants with staying power
In the UK, we spend £2.2 billion on houseplants and cut flowers every year, and flowering pot plants make up a significant part of this massive spend! Many of these come into the home for a limited time and are disposed of once they have flowered.
As beautiful as these transient plants are, choosing those with more staying power is where you get value for money and, with the right care you'll be rewarded with beautiful flowers over many years.
Key to the selection below is that they are plants that grow and thrive in a domestic room environment, all either re-flower or can be propagated relatively easily.
Nick's favourites
Streptocarpus hybrids (Cape primrose)
Well adapted for the home, requiring good light but not direct sunlight, water sparingly and feed with a balanced fertiliser. It flowers from late spring until early autumn. Propagate by dividing up over-crowded plants or by leaf section cuttings in spring.
Saintpaulia, (African violet)
These compact, free-flowering plants bloom for six to nine months. Flowers come in a wide range of colours as doubles and singles and have an attractive rosette of spoon-shaped leaves. They thrive in a warm, bright spot without direct sunlight and require a humid atmosphere and careful watering. Leaf cuttings root easily.
Clivia miniata
This plant produces a large head of bright orange flowers in spring. Breeding has created plants in various shades of orange, apricot, red and yellow. All have beautiful long, strap-like leaves; some are variegated. Water and feed freely when in growth in spring and summer. Allow plants to rest from November to January by keeping them at about 8-10°C (46-50°F) and reduce watering.
Phalaenopsis
Probably the most popular pot plant in the world. Its flower spikes range from large to miniature and individual blooms can last for months at a time. Available in a range of colours, this is an orchid for the warmest room in the house, but these moth orchids do not enjoy bright sunlight and care is needed with watering and feeding. Cut spent spikes back to an active node to prompt them to flower again. In time you should see a plantlet (keiki) develop on the flowering stem.
Phil's favourites
Epiphyllum
(orchid cactus)
Forest cacti with succulent leaf-like stems and in spring displays of flowers in different colours. The blooms are fairly short-lived but multitudes form, some may be night flowering or even scented. Epiphyllum is easy to grow and takes temperatures down to about 5°c (41°F) if they are kept fairly dry in winter. Grow them in a sunny spot and water and feed freely in the growing season. They can eventually become unwealdy but are easy to replace from cuttings.
Achmea fasciata
(urn plant)
A large bromeliad from Brazil, forming rosettes of serrated, grey-green leaves. From the centre develops a large flower head, composed of whorls of pink bracts from which open tubular violet-blue flowers. The flower head can last for more than a month. After flowering, the rosette will slowly die but offsets appear. Give it a bright position (but out of direct sun) and water into the centre of the rosette - allow it to get drier in winter and keep temperatures above 10°c (50°F).
Cattleya
These orchids with large showy flowers and large, rather succulent leaves can make good houseplants given the right conditions. The blooms are produced in spring and come in a wide range of colours- they are long lasting and some may be scented. Give the plant plenty of light (out of direct sun in summer) and maintain high levels of humidity by standing plants on moist gravel and by regular misting. Water freely in summer but allow plants to drain well in a sink. In winter plants are best allowed to get drier – water only when the compost feels dry, but keep temperatures above 15°c (59°F).